The Nekohanten is Under New Management
by obsidians
Summary: When Mousse is struck by the flu he finds out who his friends are. No lemons, no pairings, strickly friendship. One shot


I don't own Ranma, please don't sue me I'm already poor!

This story is just what I could see the NWC doing if one of the members was in need. It just came to me one day.

Sid

Mousse felt hot and feverish, but worked diligently as both chef and waiter as he was the only one there and had been given strict orders to keep the restaurant open. Shampoo and Cologne had gone to a conference to learn new cooking techniques. He was pretty sure that he had caught a nasty flu from Shampoo that had floored her for days. It was a particularly nasty virus that he had nursed her through and now it looked liked he had paid the price.

He looked deadly pale and was sweating profusely; to anyone's inquiry about his health, he simply said that it was hot in the kitchen and he hadn't slept well the night before.

Whenever he got into the kitchen, he would sag onto a stool and press a cool cloth to his forehead for a few seconds before getting up with a groan and stirring his endlessly simmering pots and filling orders. He cursed that their restaurant was so popular and always full. He would have liked nothing more then to take a cool bath and go to bed. He got up from the stool and caught himself as a wave of dizziness swept over him. Mousse realized that he was sicker then he thought, but picked up his tray and squared his shoulders to go serve his hungry customers. He only took a few steps before he collapsed onto the floor with Ramen slopping from the mercifully break proof bowls.

Ranma loved when Shampoo was away so that he could eat his Ramen in peace without being glomped onto or harassed for marriage and dates. It was almost enough to kill his appetite, almost. Without her there, Mousse didn't glare at him while the octopus-like girl wrapped herself around him, as if she wanted him to wear her. In fact Mousse was down right cordial to him when she wasn't present and Ranma liked the change of pace. He was tapping on the table after twenty minutes when hadn't received his order and noticed that a lot of people looked impatient too. He couldn't imagine it would take that long to ladle Ramen into a bowl, put it on a tray and serve it. Finally he got up and let himself into the kitchen, being familiar with the layout after having worked there before. He gasped to find Mousse passed out on the floor and quickly searched his head for lumps (he found many of them from Cologne's staff) but none that would have caused the iron headed martial artist to pass out. However he noticed that he was burning up and realized that it was probably the flu that Akane had just managed to rid herself of. Realizing that he couldn't announce that the restaurant was closed due to illness, Ranma quickly dumped a glass of cold water over his head and slipped into one of Shampoo's frilly aprons. She dashed upstairs to get a pillow and slipped it under Mousse's head and then went into the dining room.

"Excuse me; I'm afraid that our waiter took a tumble while I was preparing meals in the back. As there is only little old me present, I would like to give everyone take out containers for their meals so that I can get the little fella some medical attention" she announced.

There were words of irritation, until she went around flirting in a way that had become natural to her when working as a waitress in female form. She would call single men handsome, tell how adorable the female half of a couple was or compliment their children and call elderly men or women with their children, their brother or sister. Soon everyone was not only happy to take home his or her order home, but left her a generous tip to. When the last person had departed with a compliment directed as her, she locked the door and plugged in a kettle. She dumped the hot water over her head to change back to a male and lifted Mousse into his arms to put him to bed.

Mousse woke to find only a dim light on in his room and a blurry figure sitting beside him. Thinking it was Shampoo come to see him in his hour of need, he said. "Please darling, can I have some water?" An arm wrapped its way around his back to support him as a glass of cool water was lifted to his lips. He gulped it greedily, until a distinctly masculine voice cautioned, "slow down or you're going to puke it up" he froze and became aware of arm hair tickling his naked back. He pulled away and gasped, groping for his glasses. They were put into his hand and he thrust them on to peer through them, he stared in horror when Ranma's features swam into view. He wondered how he happened to be in his room and then noticed that he seemed to be…..naked under his sheets. He raised them with trembling hands and saw only his birthday suit in confirmation of this.

"Ranma what are you doing here? Why am I naked?" he cried in panic.

"Relax, you fainted in the kitchen, so I closed the restaurant and put you to bed" he explained.

"And you had to take off my clothes for this?" he snapped.

"Your clothes were covered with Ramen and soaked through with sweat; I had to get you clean and comfortable. I didn't know where you kept your pajamas or if you even slept in any. I have your clothes in the dryer at present, relax I washed the lights and the darks separately" he assured him.

"My robe is silk, how do you know that its machine washable?" he demanded.

Ranma shrugged "the label read that it could be washed on the delicate cycle and tumbled dried on low heat" he replied. "As for your weapons, I dried them off and stacked them in the corner for you to take care of. Why were you carrying a can of peaches and a nerf bat?" he asked him.

"None of your business, could you hand me some boxer shorts from the top drawer over there?" he asked, shrinking into his sheets.

Ranma laughed "relax I didn't check you out or nothing; you're hardly my type" he replied retrieving said shorts and frowned when they were printed all over with the kanjis for "I hate Ranma Saotome," he frowned at them while Mousse blushed. "You sure don't like me" he mused as he handed them to him. Mousse slipped into them and then stood up, only to stumble and be caught by Ranma. "I would like for you to leave" he said with as much dignity as possible.

"Sure but you shouldn't open the restaurant tomorrow. You need to rest until this thing's out of your system," he advised him.

"I have to keep it open, Cologne ordered me to" Mousse protested. "I'll be fine tomorrow, thanks for helping me out," he said grudgingly as he closed the door on Ranma. With a moan gratefully slept, only to wake several times during the night to be sick into the bucket that Ranma had thoughtfully put beside his bed and to sip from the water that he'd left him.

The next day Mousse got up feeling worse then before if anything and weakly took as cool a shower he could without turning into a duck and slipped into a clean robe and pants to prepare for the breakfast rush. He stopped short when he found Kasumi and Ryoga madly preparing food; Akane came in wearing a blue cheongsam and picked up a tray of food to be delivered to customers. His jaw dropped when Kodachi followed her a second later, then the female Ranma. "What's going on here!" he demanded.

"Mousse you should be in bed" she scolded. "It's simple, I told people that you were sick and running the restaurant by yourself and they wanted to help. Kasumi, who has an extensive knowledge of cooking volunteered to act as chef with Ryoga's help. Ryoga might not seem like much of a cook, but he was trapped in a cave during monsoon season in a Hawaii one time with a famous Ramen chef martial artist who got bored and taught him his recipes. Ryoga's may not be able to find his way back from the bathroom, but he never forgets a thing. Between the two them, they can easily run your kitchen. As for waitresses, Akane can cover that along with myself and Kodachi as soon as we work out the shifts" she explained.

"But I can't agree to this, Cologne trusts me to run the place! You have way too many waitresses!" Mousse cried.

"Please Mu-kun; I've never worked outside of my home before. This could be exciting for me" Kasumi pleaded.

"I might as well put these recipes to good use, I never make anything this fancy for myself" Ryoga said with a shrug.

"I'll work for tips alone, I just want to help you" Akane volunteered.

"As for me, I always wanted a summer job like other girls, but my brother said it was foolish. You can keep my tips" Kodachi explained.

"The extra waitress shall stay with you when they aren't working to look after you, Ukyou volunteered for the mornings as she never opens her restaurant then and even Kuno offered to take a few shifts with you. Ryoga and I shall sleep in Shampoo's and Cologne's room in case you need anything during the night" Ranma explained. "Just say yes, this way the restaurant shall remain open and you can rest and get better"

"But only Ranma has Chinese clothes and those are necessary, the rest of you don't..." he said and then realized that everyone one of them wore Chinese clothes. "Where did you get those?" he asked the girls in their familiar looking cheongsam's.

"Shampoo's closet" Ranma explained.

"I had to take mine in at the waist and hips. She's not a big girl but bigger than me" Kodachi said with a laugh.

"But I don't think that Shampoo would like you wearing her clothes" he protested.

"It's okay Mu-kun; I just did temporary alterations by taking them in along the darts. All we have to do is remove the stitches and they'll revert to their normal sizes" Kasumi assured him.

"I don't think I can agree to this" Mousse said dubiously.

"Well too bad, your dinning room is jam packed with customers and we've already got things going. Now you go back to bed and I'll be right up, I'm the one who is taking care of you this morning" Ranma said pushing him in the direction of the apartment stairs. He sighed when he got back into bed and fell asleep. When he awoke Ranma was bathing his sweaty brow and humming a Chinese lullaby "where did you learn that?" he questioned her.

"The Jusenkyo guide sang it his daughter every night" she explained as she brushed his hair away from where it was pooling at his sweaty neck. "Now get some rest, we have things under control" she said and he did.

Over the next few days Mousse drifted in and out of consciousness. He grew used to having people change his sheets, run baths for him, bring his small trays of food, wipe his brow and hold his hair back when he got sick. The girls were more maternal with their approaches and offered soft, soothing touches and gentle words, while the males were a touch more practical and gruff. Sometimes he would go downstairs to see how the restaurant was doing….only to be ordered sharply to bed by whoever caught him. Even he had to admit that things were running like clockwork. All the people that swore that they hated each other had bonded over helping out a sick friend. The restaurant was indeed thriving with single men coming to see the hot new waitresses and Ryoga's ramen was extremely good. Mousse would fall asleep to the pleasant murmur of contented voices coming from the dining room.

On the fifth day his fever broke and he slept the whole night away. "Good morning" a sleep rumpled Ranma said, "you feeling better?" he asked him.

"I'm starving" Mousse said to him.

"That's a good sign, I'll bring your breakfast up," he said. "You think that you can run the restaurant tomorrow?"

"Why not today?" Mousse asked.

"You need to rest one more day and take it easy to recover your strength. You don't have to stay in bed, perhaps you can join the ladies playing bingo downstairs?" he suggested.

"Bingo?" Mousse questioned.

"Kuno thought it might draw business and it certainly did. It's amazing how much he and Kodachi have enjoyed working; I guess it's a novelty if you don't have to. His appliance factory donated the prizes; they're a washer and dryer set, a dishwasher, a microwave oven; stuff like that. Apparently he can write them off. Everyone's having a blast," he explained.

Mousse took a bath and got into clean clothes. He took a seat the only free table in the place. He watched as Kuno read the letters and numbers randomly plucked from the tumbler in Japanese, while Ryoga translated them into Mandarin for the Chinese people present. The girls took turns acting as greeters and showing off the prizes. Everyone seemed to be having a blast and even Mousse started to play when someone handed him a card and ink dauber; he won a rice cooker.

The next day everyone arrived early for their final breakfast together. Mousse had personally prepared it himself to thank everyone for their hard work, they all laughed over things that had happened over tea and coffee. "I want to thank everyone for helping me," he said gratefully.

"Hey any time" Ryoga said. "I like cooking, but usually don't have a kitchen to do it in" he said with a laugh.

"You can use ours anytime" Kasumi countered. "In fact you can take over cooking permanently if you want"

"And I enjoyed working as a waitress; I can't tell you how many phone numbers I got" Kodachi said.

"Apparently I make a good nurse," her brother said.

"I earned enough to buy one of my own cheongsams, I quite like them" Akane said rubbing her hip. Ranma looked interested in that.

Mousse finally asked the one question that was on his mind "why did you do this for me?" he asked.

They all paused and looked up "we're your friends" Ukyou said gently. "You needed help and we were able to. You would have done the same for us"

"I-I would" he said, stunned when he realized that he meant it.

"Come on Mousse, you always volunteer to help when I'm in danger; the least I can do is wait a few tables for you" Akane said and cracked up. They all started laughing and then Mousse realized that he was seeing them in a different light. They weren't just friendly enemies with martial arts in common, but teenagers that wanted friendship and approval as much as the rest of humanity, somehow they had all found this in each other. He worked the kitchen by himself for the rest of the day, but the girls had insisted on helping him as waitresses. Ranma had graciously collect his things and left without a goodbye, knowing the Mousse was grateful of his intervention, but would be too proud to thank him personally.

The next day Shampoo and Cologne returned to find the restaurant spotless and running efficiently. Mousse was serving the customers easily and joking with each person. Cologne sat back in approval that he had managed to pull this off on his own. Shampoo took over as waitress while she called him into the kitchen.

"Any problems?" she asked him sharply.

Mousse thought of the hard work and sacrifice that his newfound friends went through and said "everything was just fine" he assured her.

Shampoo came in looking confused "great-grandmother, why people ordering ramen that we not have on menu, asking where too too pretty new waitresses are and when next bingo night is?" she asked.

Cologne could only stare at a sheepish looking Mousse.


End file.
